The applicants herein have a history of designing vented containers, particularly nursing bottles, and have obtained significant commercial success in the marketing of these products. In particular, the essence of their invention is to provide for a double venting of a container, particularly a nursing bottle, so that when a liquid is consumed, from therein, it is free of aeration or bubbles, does not require sucking by the infant when drinking from the nursing bottle, and furthermore, contains reduced parts that can be easily cleaned, during application and usage.
The concept of this current invention is to even reduce further the number of parts required to attain a compound venting when consuming liquids from a container, and particularly a nursing bottle, when used for feeding infants and small children.
Prior art containers, other than the applicants' prior inventions and patents, that hold and pour liquids have the disadvantage of usually leaking, introducing air into the liquid, not pouring on demand, not venting the container, and not providing a balanced pressure inside the container, so that little sucking or negative pressure is required to withdraw the liquids from their containers. In addition, many of the prior art utilize either direct venting, which means that any fluids located within the vent tube will pour freely from the container, in which the vent structure is installed, only to create a mess for the infant if it is drinking from a nursing bottle, containing such early venting structure.
Frequently, in order to lessen leakage, many prior art vents require a particular orientation of the container, generally in an upward position, and such can be seen in the prior Parker U.S. Pat. No. 3,168,221, upon a vent means for bottles and jugs. If the vent therein is not oriented correctly, a significant amount of liquid is spilled from the vent to the outside of the container, and typically onto the user of the container, particularly if it is an infant consuming a formula.
As stated, the applicants have successfully designed a venting system that alleviates the leakage problem as previously referred to, through the use of a double venting structure, as can be noted in their U.S. Pat. No. 5,779,071, upon a nursing bottle with an air venting structure. As can be seen therein, the double venting concept is attained through usage of a vent insert, which is a downwardly extending vent tube, and then incorporates a reservoir with a reservoir tube, that fits over the vent tube, so that when the bottle is inverted, any fluid remaining within the reservoir tube fills into the shown reservoir, and above the bottom of the inverted vent tube, when the bottle is turned, to thereby prevent the leakage of any formula to the outside, and at the same time, prevent the generation of any negative pressure within the inverted bottle, when the formula is being extracted and consumed. Similar type structure can be seen in the applicants' prior U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,796, again upon a nursing bottle with an air venting structure.
The applicants have obtained a variety of other patents upon various types of vented nursing bottles, as can be seen in their U.S. Pat. No. 8,113,365, showing a fully vented nursing bottle with single piece vent tube. Other related structures can be seen in their U.S. Pat. No. 7,828,165, in addition to Publication No. U.S. 2005/0258124, upon a fully vented wide rimmed nursing bottle with contoured vent tube. Further related structures can be seen in the patent to the inventors herein, as noted in U.S. Pat. No. 7,828,165.
As stated, the concept of this current invention is to even further reduce the number of components that make up the double venting system for a container, particularly a nursing bottle, through the integration of select related structure to the venting system when installed within particularly a nursing bottle.
Examples of other prior art showing nursing bottles, with some form of venting structure, can be seen in the Perry U.S. Pat. No. 2,061,477, which shows a form of venting structure. But, it is believed that leakage occurs when the bottle is inverted because its shown vent tube directly communicates with its lateral ports, in the region of the neck of the shown bottle.
The patent to Schwab, U.S. Pat. No. 2,156,313, shows a fairly complex form of dispensing and package device for fluids. This shows a pair of vent tubes, but it would appear when the device is inverted, whatever liquid may be contained within the shorter vent tube will be discharged, until the bottle is emptied. Another patent to Schwab, U.S. Pat. No. 2,239,275, shows a further self-contained liquid dispensing device. Apparently this device is designed to provide venting, through its complex venting structure, as can be noted, when the device is inverted, and liquid is dispensed from its tube, as can be seen.
The patent to Blackstone, U.S. Pat. No. 2,744,646, shows another form of bottle construction, that incorporates a vent tube. But, the vent tube empties directly to the outside, which means it will leak when the bottle in inverted for consumption of its contents.
The patent to Offman, U.S. Pat. No. 5,449,098, shows a fluid flow controller for a bottle. This device is apparently for use with a soda or other fluids bottle, and does have a reservoir in an effort to collect the vent tube fluids when the bottle is inverted, as shown. But, unless that bottle is oriented in a very particular direction, it will leak its fluids from the vent tube, when it is initially inverted.
The patent to Sheu, U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,710, shows another nursing bottle, and its nipple design, where it simply has a vent tube that sticks partially down into the fluids. Obviously, when that bottle is inverted, and the tip of its vent tube is within the liquid, there will be substantial leakage.
Finally, the patent to McKendry, U.S. Pat. No. 7,172,086, shows a further vented and double walled baby bottle. Apparently this device includes a check valve, to try to prevent leakage from the bottle when inverted, as during usage.
These are examples of what prior art are known, and which are designed for venting of a nursing bottle, but they are far more structurally complex of design, and obviously will have difficulty of cleaning, after usage, whereas, the concept and design of the current invention is to provide a least number of parts, to make up a double venting structure, particularly within a nursing bottle, that can be very easily be cleaned after usage, and quick to reassemble, when prepared for reception of a formula, and used by the infant during feeding and consumption of its contents.